Let’s be clear: Jeremy would be the first to admit — I’m sure with characteristic modesty — that he’s not a perfect party leader; but the very idea of a “perfect” leader always was a fiction and every mortal human being will have weaknesses.Rather than using any weaknesses Jeremy might have to criticise him from the left, everyone around him should be doing everything possible to complement the brilliant and unique qualities that he does possess.

Nobody else in the PLP could have rescued the Labour Party from the jaws of neoliberalism as Jeremy has; and his proud place in our class’s history is already assured for having made a genuinely socialist party electable for the first time in our living memory.

Moreover, no other Labour leader would have had the strength to withstand the relentless assault that Jeremy has had to endure from all quarters since he became party leader. If you want to be reminded of our case for Jeremy being a great leader, just read Skeena Rathor and my article in the Star (February 6 2017 — mstar.link/leadershipmyth).

Much more relevant and urgent is that with a general election possibly on the horizon, the Establishment propaganda assault on Jeremy has already started.

Odious right-wing propaganda sheets have been noticeably upping their anti-Corbyn smear-ridden stories over recent days and weeks.

The last thing we need at this critical time is sniping at the leadership from the left!Nick Wright’s prescient reminder of Chris Mullin’s “A Very British Coup” (M Star March 28) should focus all our minds on how best to counter the inevitable forthcoming Establishment assault on Labour and Jeremy.

Dr RICHARD HOUSEStroud

Communist Youth offer hope for future

I WAS pleased to read about the Syrian Communist Youth (M Star, March 21). They are the shining hope for Syria; they offer direction to the progressive aspirations of the Syrian people.

Chris Purnell in his letter (M Star, March 20) is correct in saying that Shamima Begum should have her British citizenship restored. She left when still a schoolgirl and now older still appears to have that same adolescent sense of entitlement and narcissism, as with many Western youth. Her jihadi husband is full of self-pity, but none for others.

Begum did not skip off to Syria to join the Women’s Institute, but Isis. Maybe as “just a housewife,” the WI would have been a wiser choice.

Many women standing up to the misogyny inherent in Islamic tradition, in countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, face terrible punishment. Many Kurdish women have taken up arms against Isis, proving them to be more than “just housewives!”

Begum and the 800 fellow British jihadists are Britain’s responsibility. We owe it to ourselves and the Syrian people that these jihadists be locked up.Isis is still at war with the West. We cannot have another Manchester bombing and we cannot allow the British jihadists to commit more acts of barbarity on others around the world.

The Islamic State broadcast and bragged about such things. We cannot know who did what, but these British jihadists were knowingly complicit; those who recant should be assessed and monitored.

My faith is in the Syrian Communist Youth and Syrian people in making Syria prosperous and progressive, not in more foreign intervention, however well intended.

PAUL GURNETTWest Mersea

Defence forces a big part of the plan

I’VE never been in military service but reading Jonathan Williams letter (M Star, April 1) is depressing because it tells how within truncated democracy – ie capitalist societies – their militaries are kept ideologically in the dark about the reasons behind the reasons regarding why they are sent to fight (Afghanistan, Iraq, covert operations, drones long-distance killing…wherever vested interests may lie).

Socialists who mean it need to be visionaries without being utopians – an educated soldiery defending socialist democracy within a socialist Europe or wherever real co-operative advance is in existence or being striven for.

No-one in their right mind would condemn someone for having to kill another human being to prevent an imminent and greater tragedy in a theatre of conflict.

But as pragmatic socialists we have to take a long-term plan for the construction of a future society as a part of an encompassing vision of a permanent and environmentally sustainable world.

I suppose I would like to say to Jonathan that the socialist transformation of society, with our defence forces being an integral element of a greater democratised workforce operating within a co-operative and collectivised ownership of the means of production of things and ideas—mental and material, will be a fundamentally different culture than today; incorporating a revolutionary world view.

WJ BRUNTManchester

Time to slash wages of incompetent MPs

GIVEN that our members of Parliament don’t seem to be able to run the proverbial whelk stall, it is time to hit them where it hurts — in the pocket.

If Labour promised a slashing of MPs’ wages I’m sure it’d help them to win on the dooorsteps.